As everyone knows, Las Vegas is the undisputed poker capital of the world, hosting many of the world's biggest and most prestigious poker tournaments, but for a few weeks in September and October the eyes of the poker world were fully focused on the UK's capital city. The Empire casino in Leicester Square at the heart of London hosted the second annual WSOP in Europe.
A fourth bracelet event was added this year, a £1,500 NL hold 'em event alongside the established £2,500 HORSE, £5,000 pot-limit Omaha and £10,000 no-limit hold 'em events. Numbers in the support events were up slightly over last year, although the number of participants in the main event was exactly the same as last year, with 362.
Last year Europeans won all three bracelets and although several pundits predicted another clean sweep for the home continent, it was not to be. After a marathon final table that lasted all through the night John Juanda finally emerged victorious at 10:30 a.m. the following morning, defeating a high quality final table to scoop the £868,800 first prize.
The final also featured Daniel Negreanu, Scott Fischman, the much fancied Swedish star Bengt Sonnert, and Ivan Demidov of the "November Nine." Demidov dominated the proceedings for much of the final and the possibility of a WSOP/WSOPE double looked in the cards until the Russian eventually capitulated in third place for £334,850. This left Demidov's compatriot Stanislav Alhekin as the only player left who could deny North America its first European WSOP bracelet, but Juanda eventually prevailed as exhaustion got the better of Alhekin.
Meanwhile, just a few miles across town, another gargantuan poker event was also taking place as the EPT London's £5,200 main event got underway at the Grosvenor Victoria casino just as the WSOPE was drawing to its conclusion. The EPT now rivals the WPT as the next biggest thing to the WSOP, and its dominance in Europe shows no signs of abating as a staggering 596 players took part.
This was a significant increase over 2007, when there were 392 runners for the corresponding event. The final did not feature as many well-known faces as the WSOPE final, but did include several highly accomplished players such as Frenchman Anthony Lellouche, who finaled in this same event last year, and WSOP bracelet winner Irishman Alan Smurfit.
But it was another victory for North America as the USA's Michael Martin, who also won the San Remo EPT event earlier this year took the £1,000,000 first prize. The enormity of the first prize was achieved thanks to EPT sponsor Pokerstars. com adding a quarter of a million to prize pool. Dane Peter Eastgate, another one of the "November Nine" also went deep in this tournament, finishing in eighteenth place.
Just when London was beginning to feel all pokered out, the Pokerstars.com high roller £20,000 event got underway and a larger than expected field of 86 players sat down to play the two day event. It was a veritable who's who of poker with many of the top names taking part. The final table was another high quality affair, featuring Scotty Nguyen, Isabelle Mercier, Jason Mercier and John Juanda, looking to add to the fortune he had recently won on the other side of town.
Juanda very nearly did the London two-step, finishing second to Jason Mercier, whose victory made it three out of three for North America in this year's big London tournaments. The next major poker event to grace the capital will be the £3,000 GUKPT grand final at the end of November, with an expected prize pool of £750,000. Until then, London deserves a short break to recuperate from all the high stakes poker action.
Jonathan Raab is a poker consultant and tournament reporter. He also represents online poker site Blue Square at live poker events in the UK and Europe, and manages the GUKPT. Email Jonathan at jr@bluesq.com
